the harmony of two cultures

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Now that Naomi is already two months old, I can really say that the hardest part of having a newborn is on their first week of arrival. And I’m not making this post to scare new mum or those currently in pregnant, but I think we all should be prepared for what about to come (specifically for pregnant mum out there). Here’s why :

When your baby first deliver, you will immediately receive a skin to skin bonding. The nurse or midwife will put your baby on your chest area and lead her for immediate latching. This was a new experience for me, because with my son I didn’t have the chance to experience immediate skin to skin bonding. He was premature and was rushed to the Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) right after he got cleaned. I was only able to kiss him for a split second. But with Naomi, the doctor and midwife put her on my chest area and was able to latch for thirty minutes non stop. I was crying with happy tears and amazed to know that she can do that.

Breastfeeding is a full time commitment. I’m not trying to whine, but having to exclusively breastfeeding Naomi is also a new thing for me and I was so exhausted during the first couple of weeks. Nobody told me that when you breastfeed, you’ll get very little time for yourself, let alone for a good seven to eight hour of sleep. Turns out newborn needs to be fed every one and a half to two hours and for a good 20 minutes per feed. I was pretty overwhelmed, because again with my son this didn’t happened. He was fed half breast milk half formula. Since he was in the NICU for almost ten days, and I didn’t get the stimulation from him, hence my milk decided to go west. So he needs the formula to get full, and because he is full my milk supply is going chaotic and he rely mostly on formula. However, with Naomi that wasn’t the case. My milk supply (thankfully) is sufficient and she seems to LOVE it a lot. Because she can really latch for hours…like hours…non stop. Not that I complain, but at that time I was so tired that I become a bit jiffy. My advice, always try to sleep whenever the baby is asleep. Light nap will help even if it just for an hour. Trust me, it adds up.

Changing diaper. In the early life, baby tends to have at least one dirty diaper for each day life. This means one dirty diaper on day one, two on day two and so on and so on. On day one, the dirty diaper will have black color due to meconium and on day four it will turn to yellow and the baby will have at least 3-4 stools daily. Since Naomi is breastfed, her stools tends to be loose (soft and runny) with sometimes may be seedy. She also stool every time she was nurse, and this is normal because some baby just does.

During the first week until almost a month, we almost always keep the room temperature at 25 to 26 degree Celsius. This is important since the baby needs to be kept warm or she would feel cold. Baby tends to feel cold easily.

Mild jaundice may occur, but that’s fine. However, Naomi had quite high on the test thus the doctor asked her to have two days of blue light treatment. If this happens to you don’t fret, you just need to keep pumping those breast milk and provide the baby with as much milk as he/she needs. I was pumping my milk every hour and send it to the hospital. Lucky for us the hospital is just five minutes away. Even so, on the second day we decided to open a room in the hospital to make it easier while breastfeeding or pumping.

So that’s about it. My first week with a newborn. I am so happy to have her and completed our little family, and I’m so looking forward for other memories to build.

Hope this post help or at least open up your idea of having to deal with a newborn. Until next time!

Having a newborn, now almost two months old baby, I planned to have an exclusive breastfeed for at least a year. But with my past history of lack breast milk supply, I thought the idea of giving just breast milk is nearly impossible. Until I met the lovely nurse at my local clinic where I gave birth. Nurse Darti, that’s what she is called. Our incidental meet up was due to Naomi’s sudden request to have blue light treatment for a couple of days at the clinic. She was posted at the baby’s room where Naomi is put for treatment.

Since the other treatment for Naomi’s yellow-ish skin is breast milk, the nurse and the doctor asked me to provide expressed milk every one hour which I thought quite impossible with my previous history of combining formula milk with a bit of express milk. But then the nurse told me about a specific plant which locally known as “daun bangun-bangun” in Sumatera. She said it’s a Bataknese secret ingredients in producing lots and lots of breast milk.

I was a bit skeptical when I first heard about the plant, because I’m just a person who trust the doctor more than traditional remedy. However, being the in-law of a Bataknese, my father in-law asked around and found out that there’s a seller in Jakarta where he then purchase and send it to me. He told me he got it at Pasar Senen in the Pasar Inpres section in Bataknese district.

He told me to cook it with meat as “gulai”, so my mum quickly do her magic and cooked me the “bangun-bangun gulai”. I eat this meal twice a day on lunch time and dinner. At first it taste weird, with texture I never experience before. However, believe me when I say that my breast milk supply has increased ever since. Naomi almost two months old now, and I have not yet turn my self to the formula nor have I even tried to think about using it.

It is such a good result that I ended up telling people, family, relatives and friends who are currently nursing so they can have the same assurance as I am. And also because of that, I did a little bit of research on the web to know more about the health and benefit of this plant.

With a latin name Oleos Amboinicus (then) now known as Plectranthus Amboinicus, is a large succulent herb, fleshy and highly aromatic, much branch, possessing short sort erect hair with distinctive smell (Wikipedia). I personally think that it looks a lot like mint plant. Based on several articles around the web, this plant has so many benefit including: anti tumor and cancer. But there is also the benefit of increasing breast milk for nursing mum.

Since it contains high iron, fiber, magnesium and potassium, this plant when consumed will combined its nutrient with the breast milk resulting a healthy weight baby. In terms of helping or boosting the breast milk supply, this plant contains polyphenol, flavonoid, prolactin, and oxytocin which boost the nursing hormone.

So who said that we can’t exclusively breastfeed our baby? Turns out what seems to be impossible five years ago now is possible. And I hope this information will be able to help other nursing mum to never give up. Oh, my top tips: get enough rest (sleep), drink plenty of water, eat frequently or at least sufficiently and try to maintain the skin to skin (direct breastfeed) to the baby.

Having a newborn means going back to the old routine of regular changing diapers and night shift and other bits and bops. Even though it sounds tiring, but I love it. And with that said, comes the return of my old time friend, the diaper bag. This time though, I’m not using the usual diaper bag like I did last time with Rama. I used this airwalk backpack that has enough room and storage for me to bring the essentials and I don’t end up looking like someone who brings her diaper bag (even though it is).

With just one and a half months old, I’ve already taken Naomi with us to pick-up the older brother and waited in the school yard for at least two to three hours top. We sometime also take her on our weekly groceries shopping because honestly speaking this baby can’t go too far from her milk (aka. mum’s breast).

Therefore, a proper diaper bag is needed just in case a blow out happened while we were out and about. Thus, here are the list of item that I bring with me:

Changing mattress, this actually comes together from the diaper bag given by my sister but since it was too bulky I ended up just taking the mattress and a small handy bag that comes with it.

Small handy bag that is easily cleaned and matched the changing mattress. I use this to put the nappy cream, warm oil, hand sanitizer and baby cologne.

Disposable diapers. I usually bring four to six of them because you never know when an emergency will happen.

Hand and mouth wipes

Dry tissue

Spare clothes, consist of onesie, legging, bibs and socks.

Muslin cloth for when you need to burp the baby or just wiping of some milk off her face.

A small container filled with wet cotton balls for wiping the baby bum. I tried using the conventional diaper wipes for a couple of times on her, but her bum turns so red and she feels uncomfortable. So the midwife at my hospital suggest me to bring wet cotton balls in a container instead. Since then, no more rash and anxiety meltdown from her or me.

A good quality fabric of nursing apron, because I could never go out and about without it and flash my boobs while nursing the baby. It’s just not comfortable for me.

And some mum stuff: my wallet, card holder, phone, a small notebook with a pen and a lipstick for when I need a little touch up.

So that’s about it, the things I bring with me in my diaper bag. I wonder if there’s anything else that I forgot and that you could share with me.

With just about 48 days after my delivery to our second child, Naomi, yes we have deliver the baby, I wanted to share my top five items that you should bring to the hospital during labor.

To start of, as any other pregnant mum I started to prepare my hospital bag at the latest on my 36 weeks of pregnancy. With a c-section coming up in just two more weeks after, I suddenly become a nesting mum who obsessively likes to clean the house and prep everything knowing that after the operation I won’t be able to do any cleaning whatsoever during the first two weeks (even more for me).

Since this is my second time, it wasn’t that hard to figure out what I need and don’t need to bring with me. But even so, I found myself bringing too many things in the end. So if you’re like me, here’s a tip on my top five items to bring with you.

Breast pump – nowadays most hospital provide the in-room service for all newly birth. This means you can stay in the room with your baby which give easy access for breastfeeding. However, if you’re like me, I have to experience my baby sleep separately for a couple of day because she needs the blue light treatment. Since I wanted to exclusively breastfeed my baby, the nurse and the midwife suggested me to pump my breast milk every one hour. Imagine that, right after three days of delivery I have to start juggling with the time and fill up my baby’s tum tum which turned out having a boys appetite. Thankfully with the supply-demand situation that was going on, plus the natural remedy that I took I was able to provide the milk to her on time and on target. But in such condition, it would be more comfortable to bring and use your own breast pump. My birth clinic did offered to lend us their breast pump, but I was just not feeling it. The breast pump that I use is the Unimom Alegra automatic breast pump. This brand is new to my ear, but trust me when I say that it feels wonder to you breast. It has a silicone padding that makes it squishy and yet comfy when it starts to pull out the breast milk, and you get a manual head for a change in case you decided to switch on to manual. When I purchase this product, I also received ten breast milk storage bag for free. All that and only around IDR900k-ish with no additional charge on delivery service.

Postpartum pads – though the clinic where I deliver provide us with this pad, I recommend other mum to bring their own from home. Based on my first delivery, the clinic/hospital usually charge you pretty high for such pad. While honestly speaking, I don’t necessary need a postpartum pads just the regular menstruation pad is all I need. It might be differ from one woman to another, but since I don’t have that much blood during regular menstruation the same thing happened on my post pregnancy.

Spare pillow and blanket – a spare pillow is needed when you just undergone a c-section. Because my clinic didn’t provide us with extra pillow, I find it very useful to bring additional one from home. The pillow can be used to help you adjust the sleeping position (think of it as a bolster). Cause seriously, after the operation they wanted you to move and sleep either to your left side or right side to let the gas come out of the system. If I don’t have the pillow, it will be quite hard for me to keep in that position. Mostly cause I have a big figure. The spare blanket however we bring for my husband and son to use at night. Yes, I did have them to stay with me in the hospital just because I don’t like to be alone with the baby in a hospital. Probably too much watching horror movie during my younger time which now polluted the brain and turned me into a scaredy cat. With that said, I just despise the idea of staying in a hospital (red. any kind of hospital) and not having a companion next to my bed. Having my son and hubby during the three day post labor really help boosting my mood and knowing that everyone is within my reach is an ease at heart.

Dry shampoo – let’s face it, who wants to get a shower right after a c-section and wash their fluffy hair? Well not me of course. Especially knowing that the doctor told you not to let the area with the bandages to be wet. So, I brought myself a mini dry shampoo. Before when I was with Rama’s birth, we don’t have dry shampoo in Indonesia, at least not that I know. So I ended up not having to wash the hair for a few days and looking droopy with an oily greasy hair. But now thanks to the trusty batiste dry shampoo, my hair still look fab for the whole week (I know…it is kinda gross). I do put it up on a high bun though to make it fresh just a bit.

Breast pad and good nursing bra – I cannot suggest more than to bring yourself some breast pad and good nursing bra. Because regular bra just won’t make it. And no breast pad equals ruined clothes (due to breast milk residue). Me however, since the clinic provided kimono on a daily basis (twice a day), I find myself not wearing a bra is more convenient. But quite overwhelming especially when the breast milk started to let down from both breast at the same time. Thus, I cannot highly recommend you to bring a good nursing bra with breast pad to avoid my situation.

So those are my top five items to bring to the hospital during labor. Let me know in the comment below if you have other essential that you think is most important.

Finally, our annual family trip that we’ve been waiting for has arrived. Yippie! The excitement is over the moon, because for the first time ever we took Rama on a trip abroad. This year destination was to Malaysia and Singapore. Rama was so thrilled to know that we are going to Legoland, he even had already checked some of the Youtube vlog to find out what type of games he’ll be taking on our trip.

Since our first destination, and if I may say our ultimate destination is to Legoland at Johor Bahru Malaysia, thus the moment we arrived at Singapore International Airport we rushed ourselves to the luggage area and look out for our chartered driver. Luckily they sent us Toyota Innova which can accomodate all four of us plus the heavy luggages (forgot to mention that my father in-law was joining us for the trip).

It cost us MYR 2.155 for a night stay which included breakfast, airport pick-ups, and two days free entrance to the Legoland Playground and Waterpark for one children. We did bought additional tickets at the hotel which turns out to be cheaper than buying it directly from the ticket booth. We spent another MYR 180 per person for two days pass at the Legoland playground and waterpark because it wasn’t included in the hotel basic package.

There are three types of room to select, the pirate theme, kingdom theme, and adventure theme. Since Rama likes to watch some pirate cartoon on Disney Junior, it was obvious that we picked the pirate theme room. No need to worry though, cause the room was not scary at all and it was quite spacious. It does says that the room can accomodate for 3 adults and 2 child.

I definitely love the room and the bathroom (unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of the bathroom). But it was cute, with a touch of personal water sink for the kids so they don’t have to use our sink hihihihihi

Next, the theme park. It was awesome!! We didn’t take the ride for bigger kids, but the place is enjoyable. My advice, come here during non-school break. And don’t bring any plastic water bottle or they’ll ask you to throw it away. But you can bring your baby’s food and drink (milk) if you need to. Coming back to the topic where I say it was best to go there during the regular time and not during the school break, because it was freedom!! My friend at work once come to Legoland during the school break and boy did he and his family suffer from the heat and the lack of chairs. Not that Legoland didn’t provide enough chairs, but it’s because the number of visitors that was probably too much.

For us however, it was a blast. We didn’t have to queue for too long and we get to see the park thoroughly. Rama definitely love it and already asked us for another trip to come back there.

So that was it, our family vacation. Didn’t get much picture while staying in Singapore, because mainly what we did there was just shop shop shop or dine dine dine.

So probably some might be questioning where have I been the past couple of months. A lot has happened, mostly fun stuff. Starting from April where we had our annual family vacation (will put on a different post soon), and then the re-marriage of Bowie’s father, and just coping up with our current pregnancy (now 35 weeks).